--- title: Unconscious Hiring Bias: How To Hire Equally With No Bias description: Bias is like procrastination—we know why we do it, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stop procrastinating canonical: https://time.com/4266236/solve-unconscious-hiring-bias/ author: Laura Mather article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-01T12:00:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:04.117Z og:title: Unconscious Bias in Hiring Exists. Here’s How We Can Solve It og:description: Bias is like procrastination—we know why we do it, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stop og:url: https://time.com/4266236/solve-unconscious-hiring-bias/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae2cf5c552ebe970/69888bce524fc034dcdf7443/hiring-bias.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 172156129 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Unconscious Bias in Hiring Exists. Here’s How We Can Solve It twitter:description: Bias is like procrastination—we know why we do it, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stop twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae2cf5c552ebe970/69888bce524fc034dcdf7443/hiring-bias.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Unconscious Bias in Hiring Exists. Here’s How We Can Solve It by [Laura Mather](https://time.com/author/laura-mather/) ## Laura Mather Jun 1, 2016 12:00 PM UTC  Hiring bias Hiring biasGetty Images by [Laura Mather](https://time.com/author/laura-mather/) ## Laura Mather Jun 1, 2016 12:00 PM UTC Research clearly documents the effects of bias on hiring. In one experiment, for example, a Yale University psychologists [showed](http://www.socialjudgments.com/docs/Uhlmann%20and%20Cohen%202005.pdf) that people were more likely to hire a male police chief—even when a woman with the exact same resume was in the running. One metaphor I’ve found useful is comparing bias to procrastination. We know a lot about procrastination—academics have studied why we do it, and yet that understanding does nothing to make it any easier to not procrastinate. External tools like Internet blockers, to-do lists and productivity apps may help, even if they never truly eliminate or get to the core of the problem. **_Read more:_** [_Pay Gap Calculator: How Much Would You Make?_](http://motto.time.com/4201637/pay-gap-calculator/?iid=sr-link1) I have engineers on my software-development team who use apps to block Facebook to reduce distractions during work hours. Our tendency to procrastinate is an excellent example that, as humans, we’re not always able to self-regulate. **_Read more:_** [_Gender Pay Gap: Investing Gap Exists, Too_](http://motto.time.com/4242835/gender-pay-investment-gap/?iid=sr-link2) This concept is also proven true in the case of team building: We know we want to diversify our workplaces and expand our talent pools, but in the moment of electing who to hire, we tend to default to the candidate who reminds us of ourselves. The solution here is similar to the solution to procrastination: technology. At Unitive, we’ve developed software that analyzes people’s resumes based on only their qualifications—the system is literally blind to the applicant’s identity. We’re not the only company doing this, either. [GapJumpers](https://www.gapjumpers.me/), [Jopwell](https://www.jopwell.com/) and [Blendoor](http://blendoor.com/) also help provide technology that prevents implicit biases from influencing decisions during the hiring process. We won’t solve implicit bias in 2016\. But we can drive change leaps and bounds beyond what we’ve accomplished already with a new, data-driven approach. Through technology, we can sidestep the bias that has shaped our institutions for too long and finally realize the change required for growth, shareholder value and getting to a society of more equal representation. _Laura Mather is the founder and CEO of_ [_Unitive_](http://www.unitive.works/)_, a data-driven approach to hiring._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4266236/solve-unconscious-hiring-bias/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4266236/solve-unconscious-hiring-bias/"},"headline":"Unconscious Bias in Hiring Exists. 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